The human microbiota plays an essential role in a multitude of non-communicable diseases. Modulating the microbiota with probiotics can potentially prevent disease and restore health. The global probiotics market is flourishing and anticipated to grow substantially in the coming years due the highly promising application of Next Generation Probiotics (NGPs) as food supplements and live biotherapeutic products. Whereas traditional probiotics are mainly derived from non-human origins, NGPs are human-derived and play a key role in overall human health. Many major probiotic companies are now moving into this field, however they are struggling with product development due to the intrinsic properties of NGPs: strict anaerobic bacteria with complex nutritional requirements. NGP product development requires radically new techniques for isolation, characterization, cultivation, production and delivery to the site of action. This untapped market segment is highly attractive for Winclove Probiotics; an innovative Dutch SME, a leader in microbiota-management, which has been offering services in research, development and manufacturing of probiotic formulations since 1987. In collaboration with business and research partners Winclove Probiotics develops evidence-based, medically-endorsed, indication-specific probiotics. Winclove Probiotics provides its products and services to over 80 customers in 35 countries worldwide, including the European, Asian and American continents. To tackle the challenges encountered during NGP development, Winclove Probiotics is developing the NOVOBIOME platform – covering the full cycle of NGP product development. The SME-1 instrument project enabled Winclove Probiotics to identify an approach for and align the NOVOBIOME platform to the regulatory, manufacturing and commercial requirements of NGPs for its customers. Winclove Probiotics’ approach leverages its already functional in-house facilities and infrastructure and combines it with innovative models and technological methods that can fast-track the timeline of NGP products to market for its customers. Winclove Probiotics will be developing NGPs as food supplements under the Novel Food regulatory framework. The NOVOBIOME platform allows the development of Winclove Probiotics’ own NGP products that are sold B2B to its customers. In addition, NOVOBIOME is a NGP product development platform that can be provided as a B2B service to companies active in this field.
